Combination animation/live-action film showing how gasoline is refined and used. With striking images of gas stations, auto travel, and automobiles.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Fairbanks (Jerry) Inc.
Sponsor: Standard Oil Company of Indiana
Audio/Visual: Sd, C
Keywords: Oil industry; Automobiles; Occupations: Petroleum industry

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: jgruszynski - - December 3, 2009
Subject: Still could be used today - and entertaining.

Too complicated? No. Average people were simply smarter back then. And didn't have pathologically short attention spans.

Surprisingly accurate and still timely: oil refining still uses exactly the same processes described and the issues of volatility and knock are still largely true.

The only real difference is car design which use fuel injections (better fuel-air uniformity and deliver than ever possible with carburetors used when this film was created), and electronic ignition which better times the spark (for performance as close to knock as possible with dynamic feedback that can instantly adjust as use and environmental conditions change).

This has largely enabled cars to use "low octane 86/87" without knocking problems. There are still cars that require 91/92 octane - generally sports cars which try to squeeze out even more power with still higher compression ratios. You should hear a BMW Z3 when you put low octane in the tank - old school knocking with a vengeance!

Reviewer: Steve Carras - - November 24, 2009
Subject: Excellent film..
Loved it..Dodsworth, you sure that the heavy molecule IS Frnak Nelson---unless he had more voices than just the familiar voice everyone would know him for? I've heard all the molecules tlak.. Ken Carpenter was also the narrator of "Speaking of Animals", from theatrical and later television showings, and that, too, was by Jerry Fairbanks,Inc.

Reviewer: Dodsworth the Cat - - July 19, 2009
Subject: Sounds Familiar
The carbon atom narrating this is voiced by Ken Carpenter, the announcer on Bing Crosby's radio show. The heavy oil molecule is Frank Nelson.

Reviewer: slugs and urchins - - May 28, 2008
Subject: inside story
ah, the good old days when pollution and war were noble and patriotic, if only we had taken everybody else's oil and horded our own we wouldn't have had to kill Saddam Hussien for his oil, and those pesky Iranians. They're next!

But don't even think about it, just keep driving like there's no tomorrow!

Reviewer: AWAmember - - December 17, 2003
Subject: Great start, but disapointing second half.
I am the type of person who always wants to know how things work, so the first part, on refining, was very interesting. However, since I already knew a little about how a gasolene engine works, the rest seemed much too simplified to be useful and probably misleading too.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - August 20, 2003
Subject: It's a gas man, a boring gas...
Another try at the 'what happens to the gas when it goes into the gas tank' story, using much more fluid animation, but sadly totally overstays it's welcome by just going ON and ON. We see very cute droplets representing the different parts of an oil drop eg gas droplets, gasoline droplets etc (the Gas Oil droplet looks kind of obscene). From there the film gets a little too complicated to maintain the cutesy attitude in the beginning, and just maintains it for the 20 + minute running time. Far more effective was 'Down The Gasoline Trail'.

Shotlist

Describes (in partly animated form: you know, "talking gasoline drops," etc!) the refining of gasoline, it's chemical breakdown, etc; excellent shots of gasoline stations (with the "Royal Crown" glass globes atop the gas pumps; striking images), and oil refineries. Good shots fo stop light changing from red to green; driver's POC on Western highway; CU speedometer accelerating to 50 MPH; CU gas jet stovetop; beautiful Chrysler "Town and Country" ("Woody") on rural highway. Deserves a shotlist...



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